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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22966927">Across the Way</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuclearNik/pseuds/NuclearNik'>NuclearNik</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Pining</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 13:35:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22966927</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/NuclearNik/pseuds/NuclearNik</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd known then that she had demons too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>99</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Across the Way</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/floorcoaster/gifts">floorcoaster</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for DFW's Birthday Drabble Exchange Recipient: floorcoaster/luckei1<br/>Prompt: Angst, not-yet-together</p><p>Happy birthday month, Floo! I hope you enjoy this little drabble &lt;3</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Fingers drumming on the wooden table before him, he stared across the room to the far side of the hall. Frizzy strands of out-of-control curls floated in the low light from the candles, the witch they belonged to picking at her food, elbow propped on the table and her chin resting on her palm.</p><p>It was odd, the way people avoided her. He'd thought she'd return with a flock of lackeys following her every move, kissing her arse each step of the way.</p><p>Instead, she sat alone most nights.</p><p>That was okay, though, because she had a captive audience in him. In recent days, he'd found it difficult to look away from her. She wasn't exactly pretty, not in the traditional sense, but she burned, and so brightly she eclipsed everything else until the only thing he saw or felt or heard was <em> her</em>.</p><p>Getting her out of his head was proving to be a difficult endeavor. He didn't want her there, taking up space and making him think there might be a world where he was worthy of a witch like that.</p><p>Returning to school had been difficult, to say the least. Everywhere he turned, the walls were closing in, painful memories battering around in his skull until he wanted to scream.</p><p>But he didn't.</p><p>He kept his head down, neutral now in every sense of the word. He stayed quiet, and when everything inside him built up and threatened to detonate, he dealt with it in his own way. </p><p>In the middle of the night when he lay awake, screams and whimpers echoing in his ears until he just couldn't take it a second longer, he'd lace up his boots and grab his broom.</p><p>Running through drills was the best way to stay distracted and switch his mind off, so he did circuits over and over again—swoops and dives and sprints—until sweat dripped into his eyes and his lungs couldn't keep up.</p><p>One night as he'd been cooling down, flying in slow circles until his heart stopped pounding, he saw her.</p><p>She'd set up behind the half-giant's shack on an evening he'd been out on an errand. Sparks of spellfire flashed brilliantly around her as she worked through the paces, running through her own drills.</p><p>Each move was executed flawlessly, the sad lumps of squash she fired at exploding in a soggy mess each time.</p><p>Something about that moment had intrigued him, prompting him to make lazy circles above her, as close as he could get to still see her without risk of being spotted. </p><p>She kept going, an hour of nearly non-stop training until finally, she'd fired one last spell and her legs folded beneath her. She propped her hands on her knees, hunched over and rapidly sucking in breaths of air.</p><p>When a few minutes had passed, he saw the tension drain out of her, and she stood, wand efficiently tidying the mess she’d made and returning everything to rights. When she began the ascent up the stone steps to the castle, her face was slack, relaxed and free of the pinched look it usually carried when he saw her in the halls. </p><p>He'd known then that she had demons too, that she hadn't been left untouched by the war despite her being a good person at heart, a champion of the light.</p><p>She struggled, and she suffered; so did he.</p><p>And now, each evening when he watched her from across the room, that small, mostly shriveled part of him buried deep inside unfurled just a bit more, turning towards her like a flower seeking the sun.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Many thanks to my pre-reading squad mcal and ravenslight! Even though it's just a drabble, I was hella nervous to gift something to a writer whose work I love, and they gave me the confidence to post &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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